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Hide the veggies pasta sauce

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My daughter will eat pretty much anything. I know I’m lucky and many of my friends and family really struggle with what their toddlers will or won’t eat. I am also sensible enough to realise this may not last forever and next month she may be as picky as picky can be.

Today I was making up a pasta sauce for my OH to take to work and decided to make up a batch for Izzy at the same time. Now as I said at this moment I don’t have any problems with getting her to eat veg but this is a sure fire way of knowing that she gets everything she needs.

So here we have a super easy but tasty tomato sauce which can be whipped up in 5 minutes and frozen if necessary.

You will need:

A carton of passata (500g)
A large handful of baby spinach leaves
2 handfuls of frozen broccoli ( steamed or boiled)
1 sweet potato ( diced
50g of cheese (grated)
1 knob of butter
1 tbsp of chopped parsley

Boil/steam your broccoli and sweet potato and set aside.
Sauté your spinach in butter until soft, add your passata, broccoli, sweet potato, cheese and parsley. Warm through and use a hand blender to thoroughly blend all ingredients.

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This made enough to feed my hungry man and toddler with another leftover for another meal. Next time I’ll definitely make double and freeze a batch.

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Feeding the family – cheese, bacon and broccoli gnocchi bake

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Sometimes it’s hard to work out what to cook that we can all eat. For the most part these days Izzy eats the same food as us. It means that I have to think twice about what I put in our food.. Throwing in handful of dried chilli flakes may not be the right thing to do anymore. If I can I will make the same meal but in a separate pot/pan so that if needs be ours can have a little extra spice.

I am going to try to post some recipes occasionally of meals which are entirely suitable for ALL the family. The following is one of them. I only started using Gnocchi at home about a year ago, it was one of those ingredients that I just never thought to base a dish around. Now I love it. A lot. I make a tomato based gnocchi bake at least once a month and we all enjoy it – it’s one of Izzys favourites.
You can find the recipe here: www.munchiesandmunchkins.com/2012/09/25/eating-well-on-a-budget-simple-suppers/

Today’s recipe came about from wanting to get Izzy eating more broccoli. I know it’s one of those vegetables which children can begin to get fussy about so I’m trying to stop that from happening.

So anyway here is what you will need:

1 500g pack of Gnocchi – I use Il pasteio ( around 70p at Asda)
1 – 1/2 pints of prepared cheese sauce ( recipe link here ) I didn’t measure!
A squirt of garlic paste or crushed garlic clove
3 rashers of smoked bacon ( fat removed and diced)
2-3 handfuls of cooked roughly chopped broccoli
1 cup of breadcrumbs ( I blend mine with herbs and freeze ready for such dishes)
1 tbsp of chopped rosemary ( fresh or dried)
Pepper

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Cook your gnocchi as per packet instructions and drain. Brown your bacon with the garlic and set aside. In an ovenproof dish ( I use a large cazuela) mix your gnocchi, bacon, herbs and broccoli together before pouring over your cheese sauce ensuring everything is covered then sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and cover with breadcrumbs. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 20-25 mins until golden and crispy on top.

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Serve with salad. Delicious.

This went down a storm with all of us. Tasty and comforting. Izzy certainly approved.

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